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Sunday 9 March 2014

The Condor has landed!

Yesterday, we did another 'England invaded in 1940' skirmish scenario.
The setting was a sort of 'The Eagle has landed' situation with a German Fallschirmjäger platoon holding a small village against an improvised British force.

The village, with a vital river crossing.
The major crossroad in the village, which had already been attacked by artillery.  
The British approached, tasked with taking the village and securing the bridge. Ian's section was supported by an Infantry Tank Mk1, Lawrence's section followed mounted in a Bren carrier.
My section advanced through the fields alongside the road. 
 At first, the village looked unoccupied, which with our random deployment system was a VERY slight possibility!
 The column approached the farmhouse on the near side of the bridge.
My section was detailed with protecting the flank of the advance. we neared the edge of a copse overlooking the bridge. 
Suddenly, a half section of Germans opened up on the advancing column...
... wounding a man in cover behind the tank. 
 The little tank returned fire with its Vickers. one of the Germans fell. 
 My men in the field spotted some more Germans behind a tree near the bridge.
Carrying their casualty, the remainder of them fell back across the river. 
Back on the road, Lawrence drove into the farm house and deployed his men.
Eventually, the Fallschirmjägers  began to lose the firefight.
...as more British joined the attack. 
The Germans fell back to the stream...
 ...covered by fire from another group of Fallschirmjägers on the bridge.
One of Lawrence's men in the farm fell to an MG34 burst. 
 At the far side of the farm, as one of his men looked through a gap in the wall, another MG34 spotted and killed him!
 Despite their brave resistance, the Fallschirmjägers on the bridge...
 ... couldn't fight the tank.
Having seen my opponents retreat, my section was ordered to go to the farmhouse. 
 As I had left the flank unguarded, the Germans recrossed the river! 
Phil, our commander, joined the fight on the bridge with his 2" mortar. 
 The fire finally overwhelmed the bridge defenders who withdrew.
 The Germans who had retreated from the farm fell back to the village. 
 The bridge defenders joined them.
 My men entered the farmhouse.
 The tank was left covering the bridge.
 After the meeting to discuss tactics in the farm, my squad was detailed to deal with the MG behind the farm. Approaching unobserved, a few grenades did the job. The last crewman was taken prisoner. 
My section then went behind the farm to attack the village. 
A party of Germans were reconnoitring forward and were surprised when my section opened up on them with a Bren!
 The tank went hull down on the bridge and found a PaK 36, whose small rounds just bounced off the 60mm front armour of the vehicle!
Pinned in the open, the Germans I had found were losing the fight. 
 The survivors ran, and my men began their approach to the village
 Backed up by the platoon's Vickers MG another group of Germans who moved to stop me were scattered. (Yes, my dice rolling was phenomenal!)
 The PaK 36 on the road was finally destroyed by the 2" mortar.
With the opposition silenced, we began assaulting and clearing the village. 
Lawrence's 'Carrier' section, reinforced by a couple of men from the headquarters section, attacked the last house on the right and checked the crossroads.  
Unfortunately, an Anti-Tank rifle team were in a ruined house opposite and shot one of his men! 
My men, on the other side of the road, were clearing houses methodically. 
 Lawrence's men began going up to the buildings top floor. 
Gotta love these 4ground buildings with detachable floors! 
 Lawrence's men looked through the window to spot the ATR team.
 They fired their 2 Brens and a German was killed. 
My section had reached the ATR teams house. 
The Germans had had enough, and fled from the building under heavy fire. 
The German command section at the crossroads signalled the retreat. 
We had won with only a few dead and wounded. We were lucky a full 15 men were absent from the German platoon (randomly determined) which meant we were able to get local superiority in numbers where it mattered!

Good job the Luftwaffe were elsewhere too, mind!

3 comments:

  1. Great looking game - terrain, figures and scenario - all wonderful.

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  2. 1st Rate love this especially the Matilda I only thing missing a Matilda II or a Lysander in the Army Co-Operation Role

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    1. Thanks David! - Ian only had a Matilda 1 to use, which, considering most of the '2's had been left in France, was not too unfeasable.
      A Lysander would not have been surviveable, I think, in a sky dominated by the Luftwaffe!- they were, in reality, tasked in the event of a German invasion with low level ground attack on the beaches, and I cannot think many would have survived the attempt!

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